Reducing citizenship processing times and backlogs

Citizenship application processing times

Recent changes to the Citizenship Act mean citizenship applications will take less time to process and the application backlog will be eliminated by 2015/16. The chart and information box below illustrate the reduction to the citizenship application backlog throughout 2014.

Citizenship Grant Inventory - Last 12 Months described below
Month 2013/12 2014/01 2014/02 2014/03 2014/04 2014/05
Inventory 323,427 315,422 311,497 301,758 307,829 302,176
Month 2014/06 2014/07 2014/08 2014/09 2014/10 2014/11
Inventory 294,762 291,674 280,451 255,070 250,986 246,702

By spring 2016, the backlog of grant applications will be eliminated.

Strengthening Canadian Citizenship: Reducing Canada's citizenship backlog as described below

This table shows the trend toward eliminating the citizenship applicant backlog in 2015-2016.

Year Grant Application Inventory (Actual) Grant Application Inventory with no EAP funding or legislative change
2012/13 324,662 n/a
2013/14 301,758 387,600
2014/15 246,702Footnote 1 454,700
2015/16 n/a 515,100
2016/17 n/a 579,200
2017/18 n/a 646,100

n/a = not available

As the chart and information below indicates, CIC is working through its inventory of older cases. These older cases have an impact on the average processing times posted on our website. We are making efforts to reduce the backlog, including older cases, and we are closing cases where applicants have failed to respond to CIC requests for additional information. These efforts will help to improve average processing times. Many people with routine cases who submit a complete application already have their cases processed faster than the average posted processing time. CIC has finalized more cases within 12 months this year, than we have in the past two years. By 2016, CIC projects that 12 months will be the average processing time.

Citizenship Grant Inventory by case age in months described below
end of November 2013
Age
(in months)		 Number of applications Percent of application
0-12 months 88,408 27%
13-18 months 89,230 27%
19-24 months 65,075 20%
25+ months 87,892 27%
TOTAL 330,605 100%
end of November 2014
Age
(in months)		 Number of applications Percent of application
0-12 months 124,229 50%
13-18 months 27,058 11%
19-24 months 13,093 5%
25+ months 82,322 33%
TOTAL 246,702 100%

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